Happy book thread day, friends! Share what you’re reading, what you’ve loved, what you’ve not loved.
Remember that it’s ok to take a break from reading and it’s ok to not finish a book. It’s also ok to not love a book that everyone else did! Just remember to file your complaints with the book, not with the lovers of said book. 🩷
Just finished Lone Women by Victor LaValle for my library's book club. It was a 3/5 kind of read with an interesting premise, but it was a little too over the top in the last third or so. But after spending my afternoon reading reviews and watching interviews with the author, I'm kind of amazed at the literary references and symbolism he packs in.
I've mostly been rereading my faves, despite continuing to download new books on my Kindle, but last night I started and read almost half of Annie Bot by Sierra Greer. I don't stray into sci-fi territory too often but this is much more of a character study. Definitely feminist! I did not see myself relating to a sentient sex robot but once I started the story... some of the scenes are VERY on the nose with my early relationships in very painful ways.
Other than that, I still highly recommend Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor and would love to see her put out something new. This might be my third read, and I'm still impressed by her vivid descriptions.
Ok so I finished Exordia by Seth Dickinson. It opens with a Kurdish refugee meeting an alien in Central Park. It’s about god and the fate of our souls…philosophy and pragmatism….there’s physics involved…it’s also about the characters relationships with each other in my opinions vs the interstellar conflict (even tho that’s very important)!!! Basically if you loved The Traitor Baru Cormorant -dicksinon’s other series- and The Locked Tomb books I think you will like this.
If you hated those please stay away lol. Also if you hate body horror stay away! I rate it 5/5
Three audiobooks to talk about!
I finished Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I was not at all expecting , and I also was surprised (in a good way) to find that . I don't enjoy reading in a book, but it's like 12 times worse in an audiobook? That aside, I did like the book--it's a good character study of two incredibly messy people and the dissolution of their relationship.
I started and finished Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. I read a bit about Bong Joon-ho's movie adaptation and was intrigued by the premise of the book. I really enjoyed it! Mickey is a smartass and not the most booksmart person, which makes for an entertaining narrator in a really sharp story. Ashton does an excellent job managing the topic of uploaded consciousness, as well as questions surrounding block universe theory. Hard scifi tends to come with info dumps, and Ashton is also really good at making them feel pretty effortless. Highly recommend, especially the audiobook, which includes some well-designed sound effects.
From one scifi with a punkass main character to the next: I'm halfway through The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart, which follows the head of security, January, at a time travel hotel who has become unstuck in time and finds a dead body in one of the rooms that no one else can see. Of course, this comes at the very time that a group of Very Rich People come to the hotel to decide who will buy it. And January is dealing with the hotel maybe also coming unstuck in time.
I'm L O V I N G this book so far. There's a beautiful balance of acerbic wit and absolute pain of grief--everyone who works at the hotel has lost a beloved colleague who meant something particularly important to January, and someone that she still sees frequently during her unstuck spells. January's chasing down baby dinosaurs brought back from the Late Cretaceous, dealing with angry customers trapped during a snowstorm, and managing the busted security cameras with the help of her glitchy AI drone, Ruby. There are so many plates spinning and Hart is managing it really well. I'm so excited to go on my walk in the morning and listen to it some more!
I liked the Paradox Hotel a lot!! It was a fun and interesting read.
Finished:
Started:
I'm panicking because all of the library books I requested came in at the same time and I'm overwhelmed in the best way. Here's what I have checked out:
Also want to plug my best friend's recently released novel--which is actually Target's selection this month for its YA Book Club! Not Like Other Girls by Meredith Adamo. I'm very proud of her.
Congratulations to your friend!!
Thank you! As soon as I make a dent in some of my library books, I hope to be able to "highly recommend" it :) . She is very talented, so I have no doubt it will be a good read
Oh I also just finished The Comfort of Crows! I loved it and related to it so much. I couldn’t help but read it really quickly but I also didn’t want it to end, I was just enjoying it so much. I’ll probably pick it up for myself once it’s out in paperback, my copy was from the library. I have another book of hers, Late Migrations, that I haven’t gotten to yet.
Wow, major props to your friend! Writing a novel seems impossible to me haha. Also, I'm related to Louise Gluck and I've never read anything she wrote! Have you read a lot of her stuff? I don't really read poetry that often, but I'd like to try.
Honestly, I have not! My library had this in the display case, and it caught my eye. I've read some of her poetry and liked it, but I've never read an entire collection.
Ah, the benefits of going to the library in-person vs just checking out ebooks! Ok I'll look into her collections and see if anything grabs me. Thank you for responding!!
Wow, huge congratulations to your friend! That is amazing!
Also your library haul sounds great
Kindle users - what are your favorite accessories for it? I’m looking to gift something but I don’t have one so not sure where to start. Thanks!
Depending on your budget, i love my wireless page turner. I also recommend checking out something callee strapcicle for easier holding.
Thank you!
I have a hard cover with a magnetic front/latch. My sister has a popsocket on the back of her kindle so it’s easier to hold which is so smart. And, depending on how “lazy” your gift recipient is, you could do one of those gooseneck holders with a page clicker lol. I say that with love because I really want that set up!
Etsy has really cute popsockets, some specifically for kindles.
Thank you!
Started reading City of Laughter a few days ago. Still unsure how I feel about it and I have no idea where it is going. I don't think the author has provided enough background for the reader to latch onto the protagonist's motivation or even understand her mindset, which makes it hard to get really into it. That being said, I'm intrigued enough to keep going!
Same! I'm a 100 pages in and I think I'm going to quit, which I almost never do, but it is just not grabbing me. I find the MC to be pretty annoying so I don't think I can do another 200 pages. The twist mentioned below is what I thought it would be...
Yeah, I decided to drop it last night and read something else. I'm so bad at quitting books once I start but thanks to the other commenters here, I was able to do it!! 💪😆
I really didn’t like it. It felt like the author was trying to shoehorn modern western gender and sexuality concepts into a historic culture that, while actually acknowledging a spectrum, obviously would not have had a 21st century NYC mindset about it.
It also is the kind of story where the twist is that everyone is secretly gay, and the author has to do a lot of tap dancing to explain how all of these women ended up married with kids.
The author strikes me as a revisionist Jew (a contentious thing in our community) and imo her take on the history isn’t great.
Ok this is helpful to hear because while I really WANT to like it, I'm also not feeling it and I never know if I should persist to get to the part where I'll all of a sudden know why other people loved it (not once had that ever happened to me hah!). Thank you for sharing. Maybe I'll quit now before I waste more time. Too many good books to read to spend time reading bad ones!!
Tbh I’ve really been struggling to find good Jewish folklore/fantasy and I’m starting to think that there’s something about the anglo/implicitly Christian fantasy structures that very much don’t work for Jewish storytelling.
City of Laughter is probably okay as a depiction of Jewish queer neurosis in academia. But even as invented folklore, it doesn’t do justice to the history or culture to say that being a modern flavor of queer is the best discussion lens.
This is really interesting. I have also struggled with that but I hadn't really stopped to think why the format doesn't quite work for Jewish folktales. My favorite books that are adjacent to this are those that extend on existing stories (i.e., The Secret Chord, The Red Tent). I liked Thistlefoot well enough, but wasn't blown away by it. I tried to read Spinning Silver and The Wolf and the Woodsman but DNF'd both of them.
I haven’t read the Wolf and the Woodsman, though I think Ava Reid is good at writing from a Jewish lens in her other books. A Study in Drowning’s depiction of debate in academia is soooo Jewish to me lol.
Have you read R.M. Romero? She’s Cuban-Jewish and understands that Jewish stories always have to stay a little sad. The Ghosts of Rose Hill is heartbreaking and A Warning About Swans is one of my all-time favorites. The Jewish trans artist character is written beautifully.
Oh that's good to know! The Wolf and the Woodsman was my first introduction to her and I found the writing too flowery. It felt like she relied too heavily on a thesaurus and it was just distracting (not that I didn't know what the words meant, but that the text felt excessively descriptive).
I have not heard of R.M. Romero but wow that book sounds amazing!! I just put it on hold at my library. Thank you for the recommendation!
Book club selection this month is Trust by Hernan Diaz. We’ve been on a bit of a Pulitzer kick lately!
The first “book” in the story is a bit slow, but I’ve heard it picks up. Nearly finished with that first section.
I am reading it now, just finished the second "book". It is slow, an interesting concept, but I am meh to finish it.
It's a very layered interesting novel. Not a page turner however and very low on plot but great character development and a rich atmosphere/settings.
I just finished A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers and really enjoyed it. Dorothy is a food critic, happily not married, no kids, has many a gentleman caller and just loves life. She is also a The whole book is written from her perspective, as if it was a memoir. She uses a lot of SAT type words, so I learned a few new words along the way.
I don't have anyone in my life to recommend this to. The person who recommended it to me thought I'd like it after having read books like Bunny, Natural Beauty, Ripe, Motherthing. She keeps recommending Tender is the Flesh but I can't get past the first page.
Omg my one friend and I read a Certain Hunger as a short book club so I'm defintely adding your suggestions for our future ones!
I just binged Sociopath: a memoir by Patric Gagne. I found it fascinating and I can’t help but wonder who the famous characters are based on. Author is not really a sympathetic character or reliable narrator but I think that’s the point.
It appears there is some controversy about the credibility of the author’s PhD, and the lack of peer-reviewed research. I know someone who has their PhD and doesn’t publish anything? She mentioned in her book that when she was working as a therapist it was unlicensed. Part of me wonders if some of the criticism is because she is a woman, but idk?
I found the book entertaining.
I am halfway through Sociopath and stumbled upon the controversy last night when I googled her because I was really curious about who her dad was. I do think upon first glance, there is suspicion about where she got her degree and the use of “sociopath” as a diagnosis, but I think it’s slightly overblown. There could be so many reasons for why it struck a nerve, I’m sure her being a woman is at least a part of that.
I am very entertained but sometimes I’m like… well this is certainly not how that situation actually happened. I read a lot of a memoirs so maybe it’s just the way she’s written it but something about it feels less like a recounting of an actual life story and more like a script for a TV show. I still have quite a bit of book left but so far I’m enjoying it a decent amount. Just have some hesitancies.
So happy to have someone to talk about this book with! Agreed about it coming off as a script with all of the quoted dialogue. I wonder if it was written that way to make it easier to adapt to a miniseries or something similar.
That would make sense. I’ve read that she kind of performs the audiobook like a show so she could’ve had that in mind when writing as well.
Not my usual genre but I absolutely loved Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson. Very Stephen King-esque it's primarily a coming of age with some paranormal elements and a LOT of 90s nostalgia. If you are Gen X the references will definitely hit! Mostly I just loved how he develops his characters through humor --he really captures that teenage secret language you have with your friends.
This sounds great!
Just finished We All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner about a mother's addiction to pain pills. It was definitely relatable as it tied into the "women have to do it all" when it comes to work, home, etc. for her why.
DNF The RomCon by Devon Daniels. Really wanted to like it but felt too predictable.
Listened to the audio version of We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman. It's such a beautiful story of friendship.
Oh no, I have the RomCon on my list… but I also kind of love predictable so maybe it will work for me.
I read Menewood in January of this year and absolutely loved it. A slightly different experience from Hild just because it’s about a different part of her life, but still so well written and immersive.
I finished How to Stop Time, Matt Haig - I found this a bit boring but I did love the premise of someone living 1,000 years and going through all of these different cultural periods. I also did not find the bulk of the book to jive with the ending. I think there could have been more of a tie in.
I also finished The Housemaid, Sarah A. Denzil - an entertaining mystery but very surface level and, at times, cringey.
I am now reading Moonflower Murders, Anthony Horowitz - I love Horowitz and don't know how I missed this one as I read his books immediately when they come out. However....WHY do so many of his characters hate or say disparaging remarks about homosexuals? Am I missing something????
Have you read the OG "person lives through a bunch of different cultural periods" novel, Virginia Woolf's Orlando? It's one of my favorite books ever.
I don’t know if Horowitz himself is personally homophobic, but the way he depicts gay characters in several of his books doesn’t make it look great. You’re not the only one to notice this— look for those search terms and a bunch of reviews pop up.
Just me, or was The Guest by Emma Cline a complete snooze? A protagonist I couldn’t empathize with or care, no real plot or action, and then it ends. I think the author is a beautiful sentence-level writer but I just could not have been less excited about this book.
Up next: The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
Yeah, I was bored by The Guest. I didn't enjoy The Girls either and I don't know why I thought The Guest would go differently! I wanted it to. Oh well.
Oh I loved it! idk it was more a,character study than thriller, in my view and I love an unlikable MC
I usually do, too! The more unlikeable, the better 🤣 Emma Cline is just so trendy these days that I think I expected something very different and more more engrossing when I set out to read it
Got it that makes sense. I actually didn’t like “the girls” for that same reason so out that way I actually get exactly where you’re coming from!
I started The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard last night and it’s fascinating so far. It’s about a community surrounded by identical communities, except to one side it’s 20 years earlier and on the other side it’s 20 years later, the only reason people can cross over is basically to see/visit a loved one who is no longer alive in their community. I have no idea where it’s going and I love it.
I finished Sex, Lies, and Sensibility by Nikki Payne. I’d already read her first, Pride & Protest and I liked this one more. It’s not earth shattering but it was sexy and set in Maine, two things I appreciate!
I just started the other valley last night as well! So far I’m very drawn into the story and the characters
Just finished Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen and liked it. Also finished book 2 of the Three Body trilogy and that book was dragging. I will finish the trilogy but omg it is painful. Started The Ruins today too.
I quit Three Body in the first book. As soon as the computer simulation sequence started I just couldn’t get through it! I’m trying to watch the show too and it’s pretty good but also having a hard time finishing.
I think the show is so much better than the book honestly and easier to follow because they visualize all these crazy concepts
I have heard that Book 2 of the Three Body Problem is the worse, but Book 3 is the best… what a conundrum.
I heard book 1 is good, book 2 is great and book 3 is amazing. Also apparently there is a book 4 (fan fiction) that the author himself considers a part of the books. I hope book 3 turns it around for me!
Oh wild! I had no idea fan fiction could be considered canon by the author!
I’m trying to help my mom remember the title of a book she read several years ago and am hoping someone here might recognize the details and know! Thanks to anyone who can help!!
Could it be Monogamy by Sue Miller? There’s a dead husband, a wife, ex-wife, and two kids. Also a quirky neighbor, with a lot happening on/over deck. Can’t totally remember if there’s a thanksgiving scene but I believe there may be one of those too!
You’re good! I’ve read Monogamy and didn’t figure it out!
It is! Thank you so much - my mom is delighted!
Yay! Glad I could help!
The Photograph by Penelope Lively is essentially this, but the deceased spouse is a woman, not a man.
In my quest to read all the Hugo award finalists I started then basically right away stopped reading Some Desperate Glory. Anyone here read it? I found the MC kinda annoying but willing to stick it out of it gets better
So far for the novels I’ve DNF’ed Witch King and Some Desperate Glory and loved Starter Villain and enjoyed the Saint of Bright Doors
I also DNFed Witch King! In good company.
Always nice to know you are not alone!
I'm in the same place with Some Desperate Glory, read a couple of chapters then immediately stalled. I do want to give it a shot, but I've been caught in a run of frustrating books and I really just want something I can uncomplicatedly enjoy right now, and I'm getting the vibe that this is... not going to be one of those books.
I’m glad I’m not alone! I ended up just giving it back to the library because I’m not in the mood to force myself to read something just cause but I am disappointed
In addition to James I'm also reading Big Swiss which so far I'm really enjoying (I love anything with unlikeable, unhinged female narrators because I'm a cliche like that) and then I have a little pile of Julie Anne Long novels to read for fun as a nice treat.
Any favorite unhinged, unlikeable, female narrator books that you recommend? Also a favorite of mine and always looking for more to add to my TBR!
I just read My Husband by Maud Ventura and it was fascinating. The female narrator is definitely off the rails!
Ooooh good to know. I have a copy on my shelf, but haven’t opened it yet. Time to give it a go!
Enjoy! It's pretty short, and definitely falls in the "no plot just vibes" category, but the ending is killer.
I recommend Death Valley by Melissa Broder!
Many if not all of the protagonists of Shirley Jackson’s novels count as unhinged. I’m reading Hangsaman right now and hoo boy.
I read two unhinged unlikable female protagonist books recently. Not sure they succeed in every aspect but I thoroughly enjoyed them: Berlin and Hausfrau. Both short, quick reads!
I mean, beyond the classics of Eileen/Bunny/My Year of Rest and Relaxation, I loved Mother Thing.
Can’t wait to read James— I have a small group of friends who are reading it together over the summer.
I started and finished James by Percival Everett this week. It’s a work of art and deserves all the accolades. It’s a retelling of Huck Finn from Jim’s perspective. My previous knowledge of Huck Finn is limited to me not reading it in High School because I found it too difficult, but I knew the general outline. It veered off the main plot about halfway through, and went in really interesting directions. Everett is a great writer; I found it incredibly though-provoking, exciting, and readable. I honestly couldn’t put it down.
It’s my first book that I’ve read by Everett, but won’t be the last!
Highly highly recommended!
Highly recommend The Trees by Everett, but I haven’t read anything by him that I haven’t really enjoyed.
I just started 'James' by Percival Everett yesterday. I could never finish Huck Finn, and I'm enjoying 'James' so much more than the source material.
I finished Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford. I loved this book and Spufford is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The premise is that when smallpox arrived in the Americas, it was a minor strain that let the Native population survive and develop immunity; the rest of American history develops from there, to the point where there’s a bison on the back of the ten dollar bill and Cahokia is a huge, thriving city on the Mississippi.
The book takes place in the 1920s of this alternate history, and is a neo-noir detective novel. The main character, a police detective, is Native but not from Cahokia, so he’s neither inside nor outside of any of the groups in the city. When a brutal murder takes place, trying to frame the Native population, he blunders into finding out why. It’s a brilliant book about identity, community, faith, politics, freedom, and love.
I finished listening to The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi. I had mixed feelings about this book, which is about a young person in Nigeria who is killed, and we gradually discover the circumstances. I liked the prose a lot, and I liked the way Emezi subverted the tropes of a detective novel, but one of the pitfalls of making your central character impenetrable even to themselves is that they’re hard for the reader to connect with. I also thought the very ending felt a bit out of step with the rest of the book. However, it didn’t have to be perfect for me to like it, and I did.
Currently reading Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson and listening to Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea.
"one of the pitfalls of making your central character impenetrable even to themselves is that they’re hard for the reader to connect with"
You just hit the nail on the head why the last book I finished (crime thriller Reef Road) ultimately failed for me. One of the women at the center of it is a bit of a blank to others but mostly to herself. When things happen to her I just found it so difficult to care. The writing is really strong and it goes in some interesting directions but all the characters act in ways I find strange because I don't think she manages to really depict them as people with motivations that we can relate to.
Have you read On Golden Hill by Spufford? I loved it so much and yet I keep hesitating on which other book of his to read next. Cahokia Jazz seems right up my alley!
Yes, I read Golden Hill and Light Perpetual and loved them both!
I’ve been slowing down on my reading because I’m in a busy time of my life but I managed to finish two!
The Deepest Kill by Lisa Black - It’s partially my fault for not liking because it’s book three in a series and I didn’t know that. There was background that didn’t make sense to me and it made the story hard to follow. Setting aside my mistake, this got really dull and hard to follow. I appreciate the research the author did regarding forensics, decomposition and Florida but it caused the book to drag. I’m pretty sure I skipped over entire sections on accident because it turned into word mush. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Where They Lie by Claire Coughlan - I’m bummed to not be giving this book five stars. It’s set in late 1960s Ireland and follows journalist writing a story on a decades old murder after a body is discovered. The potential on this was unlimited and it felt really squandered. The “suspense” was really well built but there were plot points introduced, marking as a spoiler just in case someone wants to read the book>! shoddy police work and personal biases !<, that went absolutely nowhere. By the time I got to the end, I just wanted the book to be over. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 CW: >! Pregnancy loss , abortion !<
I’m getting through my TBR before I start the book I want to read most - Funny Story!
I actually read a lot last week!
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo (4/5 stars) - beautifully written and I loved learning about Chinese mythology and folklore. My only issue is that the ending felt abrupt and rushed, and the various plot threads tied up a bit too neatly. The central mystery which drove most of the plot also got wrapped up in like one sentence which I found unsatisfying - without the detective-chasing-a-murderer framing device I think it would have been a much tighter, 5/5 read.
Piglet by Lottie Hazell (3/5 stars) - didn't really get the hype on this one. I feel like I've read variations on its central themes (UK class dynamics, female beauty standards, how society encourages women to make themselves smaller, etc.) a million times before and this didn't stand out to me as a memorable take on any of those themes.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez (3/5 stars) - I can understand why this one was controversial, especially with Ana Mendieta's family. It's a VERY lightly fictionalized retelling of the relationship between artists Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta and Andre's alleged responsibility for her murder. However Ana Mendieta's name doesn't appear ANYWHERE in the book, not even the acknowledgements - presumably for legal reasons, but it still makes it come across as exploitative of her life and memory, which is exactly what the book is trying to critique. I did like the sections of the book from the POV of the second protagonist, a Latina art history student at Brown in the 90s who discovers and writes her thesis on Mendieta's influence on Andre's work. Those sections I felt to be well-written and well-observed - as someone art-world adjacent I sometimes cringe at how its dynamics and elitism are portrayed in fiction, but I found this to be a less egregious example than most. EDIT: I learned from a comment below that those sections were based on the author's life, which explains a lot....
Also DNFed a bunch of things (The Hunter by Tana French (soooo boooooring), Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan (not really the book's fault, was just not in the mood for true crime fare), and some other books I'm not even remembering at the moment). Currently reading The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett. It took me a long time to get into the other book of hers I've read, The Appeal, but I ultimately enjoyed it, and I can tell that that will be the case with this one as well.
I really enjoyed Emily Henry's Funny Story, which also helped me to finally get out of my reading slump! I felt pretty lukewarm towards Book Lovers and Happy Place but I've always liked her writing so I'm glad this one turned out to be a fun read. I think what's really great about her books is the way she depicts romantic scenes, it's like she has so many different ways to describe how her characters are feeling in the moment and I appreciate that a lot. It's probably also because I've been reading so much fanfic lately and the sex/romantic scenes definitely start getting a bit repetitive after a while since it feels like most writers tend to use the same phrases for their descriptions.
I did find the exes to be so cartoonishly evil to the point where I wish she actually developed them a bit more. I just had to roll my eyes every time they appeared since everything they did was just a checklist to make the reader dislike them. Another complaint I have is that her conclusions always feel so abrupt to me. I noticed this pattern in all her books where the leads get together/properly hook up at around the 70% mark, only for them to have some kind of misunderstanding and have a temporary fallout, and then they'll finally work out their differences and get together at the end. But given that the conflict is introduced so late in the novel, I feel like she rushes to get it resolved as quickly as possible. I would've love to see what happens if she took more time to develop the fake relationship storyline and . Oh and I really did not like Daphne moaning every time she ate, it was... strange. All in all, even though I've got some problems with it, I still really liked the leads and it was a lot better than her recent stuff for me!
I DNF'ed Happy Place after loving Beach Read and Book Lovers, so I'm very hopeful about Funny Story! Just in time for reading outside under an umbrella season!
The moaning after eating something was absurd 😂 I'm with you though, I liked this one a lot better than Happy Place!
“Close to Death”: The fifth in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, and though I never find that the subsequent books are as good as the first, I still liked this one. It’s not like the others where the mystery is being solved in real time, but rather Anthony is writing about a past investigation that Hawthorne was involved in. Multiple deaths occur in a tight knit “close” (which I guess is an English term for like a very small neighborhood) and the local police grudgingly ask Hawthorne for his help, but with an ending that’s not usual for him. Some aspects of it I found confusing because there’s almost multiple story lines going on at once. 4/5
I found it confusing but enjoyable too! an interesting departure from the usual structure
You ever make it halfway through a book before finding out something that fundamentally shifts your perception of the author and the text. That was my experience with Anita de Monte Laughs Last, and not in a good way.
See, I knew the book had been inspired by the life of the artist Ana Mendieta (not a direct analogue, the author has said; an homage) and as I found myself connecting with the character of Anita and her distinctive voice I realised how little I actually knew about the real woman. So that's when I hit up Wikipedia, and that's when I realised that, uh, no, this isn't an homage. Anita de Monte is thinly-veiled fanfiction: her entire backstory, her career, her relationships, her artwork – all of it's Ana's, just with the names changed (and with her family's role in preserving her legacy given instead to the character based on the author).
The whole book revolves around this... gross, sensational dramatisation of a real person's life and murder. Unsurprisingly, the Mendieta family are pretty upset about it. Meanwhile the author's doing tone-deaf interviews claiming she's communed with Ana's ghost and been granted permission from beyond the grave.
Killed my enjoyment of the book instantly. It was a struggle to make it through to the end.
I don't think this story is anything so remarkable that it could only have been told in this form. As is, I don't even feel like it does what it sets out to achieve particularly effectively. It certainly doesn't feel like any kind of tribute to the artist whose voice and history and accomplishments the author appropriates for herself. Fucking hell, man.
I also had issues with this book, but when I started it, I didn't realize that Anita was Ana. I listened to the Death of an Artist podcast season about Ana a couple years ago so as soon as I read the book's description of Anita's death, I recognized it. As you say, it's straight-up Ana's story, note for note. I felt a little weird at that point and I continued to feel uncomfortable reading the Anita sections of the book. I agree with you that ultimately it doesn't really succeed as a tribute to Ana and I particularly hated the parts from Jack's POV.
I did actually like the Raquel character and I might have liked a book that was fully about her and her studies/work.
Out of curiosity, do you think it’s more generally a bad idea to base a novel on a real person’s life? There are a lot of examples and I’m wondering if this one is different somehow or if you think the whole enterprise is a bad idea.
I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea, but it's something that needs to be approached with sensitivity and intentionality. Ana Mendieta was killed in 1985, her family are still alive and actively involved in promoting and preserving her legacy and her death is still a source of pain. So the author needs to be seriously thinking about what they're trying to say and how they can achieve that in a way that honours the artist rather than causing further pain.
And Gonzalez fails on both counts, IMO: her handling of Ana's story is incredibly insensitive, but it also doesn't always serve the book's themes. Like, she wants to talk about the way the rich white male art establishment glorifies shitty white men and pushes out marginalised voices, but in the book Anita's erasure becomes chiefly about two terrified individuals trying to exorcise her ghost. Never mind the hypocrisy of talking about the way marginalised artists get written out of histories while literally writing Ana's name out of her own story!
I agree that I have seen this done in a very powerful way. A book I just read is heavily based on the relationship and correspondence of two real artists but I think enough was changed so that it feels like the author used the IRL counterparts to her characters as inspiration not just mimicry. But to me when the real person was murdered then it becomes a bit trickier to handle the source material respectfully.
Of course, there are books where it’s history, not inspiration at all, like (to use an extreme example) Wolf Hall, or something like The Paris Wife. I’ve often wondered about whether the line is just how well it’s done.
I think that's it. If the book can manage to create something out of the source material that is fresh, interesting and new is the key.
It always makes me wonder “did you think that because you just learned about something, other people wouldn’t immediately clock where you lifted your source material?” This happened to me with The Ape House by Sara Gruen, where she decided that the bad guy’s ape scientists experiments were just exact replicas of the Monkey Mother experiments of the 1930s-1960s. I think these are probably one of those more well known (and shocking) animal behavioral experiments and also, definitely were not taking place in 2010.
There is a really good and very thoughtful podcast about Ana Mendieta called “Death of an Artist.” It goes into Ana’s life and death, but also about how the art industry treats women and outsiders and how it treats “geniuses”. It’s really an excellent series.
oop I just left my own comment about Anita de Monte Laughs Last! Totally agree with your take.
I read Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow which details the surprisingly close links between some congress members and American fascists prior to WWII. Hard to follow at times due to the large number of people involved but definitely interesting.
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks. I think this book was just of its time. Some very good ideas about how we need more love in our culture and talk about gender dynamics in heterosexual relationships. But some weird paragraphs where she calls Monica Lewinsky greedy and a needless paragraph about Nicole Brown Simpson where she says “I’m not victim blaming but…” It was published in I think around 2001 so, again, I think it’s just of its time.
Winterland by Rae Meadows. Fiction about a gymnast trying to make it in the brutal Soviet sports system. Very meh. Nothing special.
Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, Fucking Up, and Figuring it Out by Gracie Gold. If you are interested in figure skating I’d probably check this out. I find the whole toxic culture behind figure skating troubling and so may people have spoken out but it’s changed at a glacial pace.
Lady Ruthless by Scarlett Scott. If you want a regency romance novel that has angst and is steamier than your typical Harlequin then Scarlett is your girl. A good enemies to lovers one.
I also struggled with aspects of All About Love. The two examples you give are spot-on; I also couldn't believe how she outed the sex abuse survivor just because SHE thinks secrets make someone sick. There were many other weird little moments like that--made all the weirder for some incredible writing and insights in the rest of the book.
I forgot about that one but that was terrible, too! What a horrible thing to do.
I finished two books last week. The first was A Court of Wings and Ruin. I have been reading a lot more fantasy romance, and it’s been so fun. It feels like I’m recapturing the make believe of my childhood… but also sexy. It doesn’t matter that the writing is mediocre and that I could nitpick the plot to death. it feels like a delicious little treat every time I sit down to read.
I also finished The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier. It took me a little bit of time to get into this book. There is a large cast of characters, and I had trouble keeping them straight while listening to the audio book. Too many of them had similar names, like Lucy and Joanna, and Adrian and Andre. I was glad I stuck with it, though, because in the end I think it is a novel that will stick with me. It takes a seemingly preposterous sci-fi incident and spins it out in a way that feels so true to human nature. I especially enjoyed that there were cameos from real politicians and celebrities at points. The ending was 💯. I would highly recommend it.
The Anomaly was a really fascinating book. I don't know that I loved it but it was very thought-provoking!
I love it when I have weeks of really diverse reads! This is one of those weeks.
Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu - Historical fiction following a family though 3 generations. This had to do with the Japanese War of Aggression, and Chinese/Taiwan politics. The characters are Meilin, the grandmother who escaped with her young son, Renshu, the immigrant to the US and his daughter, Lily. There's nothing about "intergeneration historic fiction" that interests me, but this story goes so much deeper. This is half review and half personal reflection on all the different feelings that this story brought up in me. I had a lot of feelings.
First, a young mother and her son escape west in the Japanese War of Aggression. This is a story I was familiar with from reading The Library of Legends by Janie Chang recently, however, this was a slightly different story as it was a family travelling rather than students. The family also had ties with the KuoMingTang or KMT.
Second, the characters settle in Shanghai, which many people settled in after the war. This was also a parallel that I made with The Library of Legends, however as the characters in the Library of Legends grew to have more support in Shanghai, Meilin and Renshu lost monetary support.
Third, making their way to Taiwan. I knew the background of Taiwan and its ties with the KMT, but this book really laid out the history of how violence of the Chinese Communist Party drove the KMT supporters to Taiwan, displacing native Taiwanese. I also learned about how in those first five years, the KMT had a plan to retake mainland China. Seeing history from his perspective was vastly eye-opening. The people who went to Taiwan during this time were refugees, and could not go back to mainland China for a long time.
Fourth, seeing Renshu make his way to the US for graduate school really reminded me of my parents' own experience. Granted, Renshu came over in the 1950s and I can't help to think that things were so different back then, interracial marriage wasn't legal. Mixed kids were rare then, and were even rare when I was growing up... but contrast that with this next generation where most kids will be mixed race.
Fifth, seeing how cautious Renshu is about Taiwan/Chinese relations, a One China policy, and how your actions in the US could reflect back in your relatives in China. This was something that I had the privilege of never worrying about.
Lastly, Renshu never shared his past in China with his daughter, and that's made me reflect on how very very little I know about my own parents upbringing, much less my grandparents.
Overall, a well written tale that has taught me history, made me reevaluate my own biases and made me think.
10 Things That Never Happened (Material World #1) by Alexis Hall - A light hearted, funny romance written in that classic Alexis Hall style. Sometimes I love their writing, sometimes it falls a little flat for me. This time, it was a little flat-- the characters did not seem to really capture my heart and there was so much lying about faking amnesia. It made it really hard to root for the protagonist.
The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2) by Nita Prose - A sequel to The Maid that follows Molly a very literal maid, good person, and mystery solver. I enjoyed the cast of characters, Molly and the overall mystery. If you enjoyed the first, you should read the sequel!
I finished I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (eBook)!
I appreciated the critique of true crime, as I've recently been reflecting on my own consumption of the genre. It's interesting though that even with these critiques being at the forefront, the victim's family are still barely involved/mentioned. This one also takes on MeToo but I don't know that it was quite as well done as other books (see: My Dark Vanessa). Of all things going on here, I found Bodie's relationship and living arrangement with her sort of ex-husband to be the strangest. That was the thing I had a hard time believing lol.
Overall though I liked this one and I read it very quickly, even with it being over 400 pages!
This book suffered from throwing too many topical issues at readers instead of spending more time developing the central mystery. She's a good writer and I definitely finished it and was entertained but it's one of those books that I read and immediately forgot. It just became a grab bag of trending social media topics.
Totally agree! It was an easy read and overall I liked it, but I could see myself not remembering too much about it in the years to come.
I have a hard copy of this book and ive been reading it here and there. Im maybe half way through. It seems like alot of ideas shoved into the book, it might be a DNF for me, im not sure.
Life is too short to read books you aren’t vibing with!
I just finished Funny Story by Emily Henry. It’s cute and fun and perfect for a beach read. Typical fake dating trope, nothing outside the box or super special. Emily is a good writer but I kind of feel like her book-a-year schedule is doing more harm than good to her at this point. She’s really good at depicting likable main characters and settings, less so with interesting plots imo. Giving herself more time to marinate on her books might help with that.